Saint Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity

"Anichkov Palace – a monument of Russian history"

Anichkov Palace is considered to be one of the most outstanding examples of palace architecture of 18th to 19th centuries in St Petersburg. The palace was called "Anichkov" after Mikhail Anichkov, the commander of а battalion of engineers who in the reign of Peter the Great built Anichkov Bridge over the River Fontanka. Later, the same name was given to the nearby palace, construction of which, under the orders of Peter's daughter Empress Elizabeth I, commenced in 1741 and finished in 1751.

During the first half century of its existence, Anichkov Palace belonged to the closest favourites of Elizabeth I and Catherine II, Aleksey Razumovsky and His Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin. For the century that followed it was оnе of the residences of the imperial family - their home and venue for lavish official receptions and splendid balls and masquerades. The palace was owned by the Grand Duchess Yekaterina Pavlovna (daughter of Emperor Paul I), Nicholas I, Alexander II and Alexander III. The last Russian emperor Nicholas II, spent his childhood at Anichkov Manor.

The Garden is an essential and one more wonderful part of Anichkov manor, cozy and quiet place in the heart of the bustling megalopolis. Now Anichkov Garden is much smaller than the original - in the XVIII century. To create French Garden, landscape architect Ludovic Kinder Tapers was invited, and K. Rossi designed the lattice fence and two elegant pavilions, which received the name of its creator - the Rossi’s Pavilions.

Today Anichkov Garden is a favorite place for citizens' and guests' walks.

Famous St. Petersburg architects played а hand in the design and construction of the whole architectural ensemble, and frequent alterations to the palace, in accordance with, the wishes and changing tastes of the imperial owners. М. Zemtsov, G. Dmitriev, F. Rastrelli, I. Starov, Y. Sokolov, L. Rusca, К. Rossi, А. Shtakenshneyder, Е. Zhiber, К. Rokhau, М. Mesmakher, and I.Monighetti were among them.

A special place in the history of the Palace is occupied by the visit of famous writer F. M. Dostoyevsky and poets Vasily Zhukovsky, Aleksandr Pushkin. Pushkin’s bust by sculptor T. Davtyan was appeared in the palace in 1937, that date was doubly memorable – opening of the Palace of Young Pioneers and the 100th anniversary of the poet's death.

After 1917, Anichkov Palace was nationalized, and from 1918 to 1934 the City Museum was opened. In 1934 it was decided to establish "The Palace of Pioneers", after the reconstruction on February 12th, 1937 it was opened. Since 1993 the palace’s official name has been "Saint Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity".

WORLD OF CHILDREN – WORLD OF CREATIVITY

Saint-Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity is the biggest institution of non-formal education in Russian Federation.
About 16 000 young citizens, at the age of 3 to 18, from St. Petersburg and Leningrad region take classes at the Palace;

1300 hobby-groups, clubs, sections and studios;

114 buildings and constructions: Anichkov manor, the Cabinet, Service building, Concert Hall "Carnival" with two auditoriums for 815 and 140 seats located on the same territory, where different activities such as national and international festivals and other youth meetings can be organized, etc.

Total area 313 065 sq.km.

Our Palace is esteemed and acknowledged by the citizens of St. Petersburg. From generation to generation they bring their children to the Palace.

THE PALACE ALL YEAR ROUND!

All year round out-of-town Center of Children and Youth Creativity «Zerkalny» takes each student from the Palace.

Housings, with comfortable conditions, ultramodern stadium, sports and rehearsal halls, nursery, primary and secondary schools, library, workshops, concert hall are available for children and youth education, creative development and improvement the whole year around.

More than 8000 pupils rest here in a year. More than 2000 children go on hiking; participate in archaeological, geological and biological expeditions and periodical trainings.

one of the greatest living chess players, and is the oldest living world champion Boris Spassky, three times world checkers champion Alexandr Georgiev and leading Soviet and Russian chess player and concert pianist Mark Taimanov and many many others.

THEY HELP TO REACH SUCCESS

Saint Petersburg city Palace of Youth Creativity is not only the biggest children center, but also the biggest methodical center of St. Petersburg.

All teachers’ traineeships of all possible subjects, advanced training, teachers’ skills development and many others are held here.

Today more than 1000 tutors work with children in the Palace. They include PhDs, Honoured coaches of Russia, Honoured artist of Russia, Honoured cultural workers of Russian Federation, masters of sports and members of various creative and professional unions.

Experience gained by the pedagogues of the Palace is really unique. Our colleagues from different regions of Russia and abroad come here to take part in seminars, conferences and workshops. Since 1998 St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity has been an organizer of the all-Russian competition among pedagogues of non-formal education "I give my heart to children".

SCIENCE, MUSIC, ART, SPORT

The following clubs and hobby groups are opened for children and youth:

Youth clubs:

club for students of local lore "Petropol"

club for language studies "Friendship"

press-centre "Generation"

club for social studies

clubs for young tourists

literary club "Daring"

naval club "Sea cadet"

club of young cosmonauts named after German Titov

Nature study:

Ecology - Biological Center "Krestovsky Island" is a school medical department, laboratory of botany, research laboratories of animal ecology and sea benthos, flower design studio, the city Ecology and Biology Olympiad, annual trips with interesting programs, educational conferences, seminars, researching work in various fields of biology... and more interesting things can be find here in our center.

Music:

the Dunaevsky ensemble of songs and dances

symphony orchestra

brass-band orchestra

folk instruments orchestra

bayan orchestra

choirs "Drops”, “Young Generation", concert choir

Theatre:

theatre-studio "Metamorphoses"

musical-variety theatre-studio "Joke"

Theatre of Youth Creativity

puppet theatre "Dolls"

Visual arts:

visual Art-studio

Children Design Centre

photographic studio "Silhouette"

Sport:

sport schools of the Olympic reserve:

fencing

boxing

gymnastics

motorcycling

sport dances club "Rhythm"

chess

draughts

tennis

orienteering

Demands of the citizens are the main guiding line for opening new clubs and creating up-to-date extra-school education curricula. Many of our creative groups are well-known not only in the city but also in different regions of Russia and other countries of the world.

HOLIDAYS, CONCERTS, COMPETITIONS

Every year about 300.000 young citizens of St. Petersburg and other towns take part in different activities.

Children creative groups are actively involved in everyday life of St. Petersburg.

It became a good tradition to have concerts on the best stages of the city, exhibitions of young painters in the Central Exhibition Hall and Artists Trade Union, participation in the parade of brass-band orchestras, laying of wreaths on the Victory Day in the Piskarevskoy memorial cemetery (the biggest War memorial in SPb, where were buried more than 500 thousand victims during 1941-1944).

There is a tradition to organize annual Christmas events for children of the city and the Charity Christmas meetings for orphans and children whose parents were killed in the line of duty.

One of the most important guidelines of our work is an active support of children unions, organizations and movements which develop social responsibility and initiative.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Every year our students take part in different international festivals, competitions and sporting events. They gain awards, get diplomas, medals for participation in international, all-Russian, city competitions, contests, exhibitions and conferences.

Lately they took part in such international competition and projects as Neumarkt International Youth Meeting for musicians, CICLO-2014 (the Art project of four countries: Denmark, Russia, South Africa and Brazil), several festivals; our athletes took part in events organized by International Federations and Clubs from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, France and etc in orienteering, gymnastics, box, chess and checkers and of course fencing.

Since 1996 St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity is an active member of European Association of Non-formal Institutions for Children and Youth (EAICY). There are 60 institutions of non-formal education from 16 countries of Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Being a member of the Association, the Palace stimulates full and overall development of children and youth, carries out projects and programs for leisure time activities, maintains bilateral and multilateral youth cooperation, develops scientific and research activity on the issues of non-formal education in Europe.
St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity not only represents the field of non-formal education of the city, but also coordinates cooperation between member-institutions from Eastern Europe.

The doors of St. Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity are hospitably opened not only for children. We are glad to welcome our former students, friends, St. Petersburg leaders, outstanding people. We are happy to meet all people who are not indifferent to the children’s world!